Pomona's art colonist plays ball

Last night was a great success! Thank you Darlene DeAngelo for curating this awesome show. The art is amazing! We had so much fun....Whiffle ball, hotdogs, cotton candy, mini tacos, peanuts and cracker jacks and of course, beer.
Every little detail was thought out, right down to the baseball trading cards, which was a great way to meet the artist....Brilliant!
If you didn't make it out to the Huntington Beach Art Center last night, there's still time, the show is up till December 21st.
here's a little slideshow of some highlights from the opening last night....enjoy.
-Susie

2332 Baseball Art show in Huntington Beach

Hey, just wanted to invite everyone to a cool art show this Friday the 17th. It is a baseball theme show and I have some paintings in it along with art by Michael Woodcock, Dean De Cocker, Jimi Gleason and five other artists, some of which have shown in the arts colony in the past.

We're going to play a game of whiffle ball at 5 pm, artists vs staff and writers. Lots of hot dogs, nachos and other baseball food and beer to enjoy. Pick up an invitation at Bunny Gunner this week that includes a trading card featuring one of the 9 artists. 

-Juan

2332

Exhibition Dates: Saturday, October 18, 2008 - Sunday, December 21, 2008 
Opening Reception: October 17, 2008, 7-9pm 
Huntington Beach Art Center 
538 Main Street, Huntington Beach CA 
(714) 374-1650 www.surfcity-hb.org/Visitors/art_center 

2332

A contemporary group art exhibition demonstrating the correlation between art and baseball through the work of nine players and their new work.

Stadium fare, beer and non-alcoholic beverages will be served. 

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This one's for you Disneyland

Best Art Gallery Associated with Non-Violent Animals

Bunny Gunner

By: Kevin Ausmus

In the ‘70s a movie called Night of the Lepus found mutant rabbits terrorizing the likes of post-Star Trekkie “Bones” McCoy and has since become a cult classic. Taking the theme one step further Bunny Gunner proprietors Juan Thorp and Susie Eaton provide art services, custom framing and occasionally home-baked sweets against the backdrop of a machine gun wielding fluffy bunny in no mood to argue. We can’t say what you’re going to see, but we took that to mean either buy a piece of art or prepare to get blasted. (Kevin Ausmus)
Bunny Gunner, 266 W. 2nd St., Pomona, (909) 868-2808

No Bunnies with Guns at The Happiest Place on Earth

So, I get a phone call today from one of my most loyal customers, 20 years to be exact, telling me that she is at Disneyland and was having a little trouble.

This woman is very conservative... she's a stitcher and wins awards every year at the LA county fair for her beautiful work. Her name is Pauline Yawitz and I'm going to let her tell you her story.

My name is Pauline and I think Disneyland has a big problem! Because of this cute t-shirt from Bunny Gunner, I was almost not allowed into the park today. It seems at the gate where your bags are checked, the girl didn't like the shirt. She said that it was "inappropriate" to wear into the park and I should think twice before wearing it there again. I think she thought that the bunny would jump off the shirt and start shooting. Well, as you can see I was able to get in the park anyway. Bunny Gunner Fans, I think that we should rally around the shirt and our friends Susie and Juan and wear the shirt together on the same day and really let them know what we think!

-Pauline

Thank you Pauline, You're the best! Some people just don't get it, But those who do, know what's up.

-Susie

Envisioning the Future Mural dedication

Pomona Envisions the Future mural at Thomas Plaza was finally finished and was being given a plaque of attribution to the artists that worked so very hard to create this amazing work of art. Our Honorable Mayor, Norma Torres, presented certificates of appreciation to the artists and a bronze plaque with a description of the mural and the artist's names was unveiled. There was a light rain and it felt like a gift from the Goddess herself.

Then there was the party. Participating artists from the project "Envisioning the Future" that took place in downtown Pomona 2003 - 2004 started arriving at Bunny Gunner around 4:00 p.m. These artists came from all over Southern California to reunite for a 5-year reunion...painters, sculptors, photographers, video artists, writers, performance artists, installation artists and the mural artists. We had a champagne toast to the mural and wonderful memories of an ambitious project in a town that provided endless possibilities. Five years ago we were strangers and now we have a bond that will last forever. Our hosts, Susie and Juan, made us feel like we had come home for a holiday party.

At 6:00 p.m. we moved to dba256 for good cheer, food, and a conversation with Judy Chicago and Donald Woodman. The running theme for conversation was the great memories the artists had of a community that embraced them and their work during their year as guests in the Pomona Arts Colony. Many of them had not been back since the two months of presentations in twelve venues, January - February 2004. The accomplishments of the artists that participated in ETF are most impressive and they credit their experience in our community for contributing to their success.

As the originator and coordinator of the community-based project, Envisioning the Future, and now the 5-year reunion, I could not be happier or prouder of our Pomona Arts Colony.

-Cheryl Bookout

Cheryl, we could not be prouder of you, You haven given years of your life to this project...We love you!

Kevin, you and your team are amazing! This is the most beautiful mural I have ever seen.

New York Delight, the food was DELICIOUS!

dba256 Gallery Wine bar....Great place to have a party!

I'm also very proud of our community, again! We have something so special here and It felt good hearing

this from our visitors and seeing our town through the eyes of our guest...They were very impressed with all that we have here.

-Susie and Juan

Revisiting Pollock

Last week I had the pleasure and honor of making the frames for the Jackson Pollock exhibit at Azusa Pacific University . Here are a few photos, via Jim Daichendt, who is a professor of art history and exhibitions director at APU. The exhibit will be up for one more week, so check it out .

Here's some info about the exhibit :

On October 4-11, Azusa Pacific University hosts an art exhibit featuring a collection of paintings attributed to renowned modern artist Jackson Pollock. Owner Erich Neumeth obtained the collection more than 40 years ago, but has never exhibited these paintings―until now. They have sparked discussions over authenticity from artists and collectors alike. The October exhibit will center on Pollock’s style and technique and allow the audience to engage in the work and decide for themselves.

In a university setting, this process of visually engaging with works of art enhances the theoretical and practical instruction within the classroom setting. The opportunity to view works attributed to an artist of Pollock’s stature intensifies the richness of the dialog students and guests experience in our galleries. We hope you will benefit from this experience and gain deeper understanding and appreciation for Pollock’s work.

Finishing School at MOCA last night

Executive Order Karaoke by Finishing School | MOCA Engagement Party from MOCA on Vimeo.

photos: James with security

next photo from left: Jason Plapp, Joel Heflin. Ed Giardina, Tammy Tomahawk, James Rojsirivat and Brian Boyer

Our Good friend Franz Keller singing very well!

Bottom: Joel Heflin and Ed Giardina

video of very cute couple singing

 

Last night a few of us Colonist headed out to MOCA to show some support for our friends form the art collective,

 "Finishing School".

Several of the members frequent our Artwalk and  have shown in our galleries here in Pomona. Joel Heflin will be showing a Bunny Gunner in November. Ed Giardina and Brian Boyer were two of the first artist to show at SCA Project Gallery when they opened in 1999. Well, needless to say, Cheryl Bookout the director of SCA and myself are very proud of these guys that we've known since our days in Santa Ana. Joel and I were framing together in the artist village and Ed had one of the coolest galleries in town, EGCA,  which later hooked up with Max Presneill and moved to The Brewery and joined Raid projects.

The "Boys" as they called themselves back then formed an art collective,

Finishing School,  which is a collective identity that explores art, design and technology that intersects praxis, play and activism.

Finishing School has been invited by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) to be the inaugural participant in Engagement Party.

Engagement Party is a dynamic new initiative developed to engage innovative Los Angeles-based artist collectives. Over a three-year period beginning in October 2008, selected groups will participate in three-month residencies during which they will present a public program at MOCA Grand Avenue on the first Thursday of each month from 7 to 10pm. The goal of Engagement Party is to involve new artists and new audiences while reiterating MOCA's commitment to imaginative critical analyses of contemporary art in Los Angeles. Made possible by a major Artistic Innovation Fund grant from The James Irvine Foundation, MOCA's Engagement Party will host 12 artist collectives over the next three years.

Here's what Mat Gleason of Coagula had to say about our friends:

 The artist collective “Finishing School” has taken up a residency at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (L.A. MOCA). What that means is that MOCA is too ossified and insular to know what the fuck is going on and finally realize that simply asking Paul McCarthy and Chris Burden for new ways to stroke Paul Schimmel’s ego by adding their friends, lovers and former students to the permanent collection isn’t getting the museum anywhere. If the piece of rat shit that is the Martin Kippenberger retrospective currently on view at their Grand Avenue building is any indicator, old curator Anne Goldstein is even more out of touch with anything that has a pulse in regards to art.

So to happily mix metaphors, the new blood is a breath of fresh air at the cathedral of those old farts. Finishing School’s first project was entitled EXECUTIVE ORDER KARAOKE. The piece was to stage a participatory event outside in MOCA’s sculpture plaza. They set up a karaoke machine with familiar songs (Like a Virgin, I Will Survive) and had people sign up to sing on stage, where behind them was projected images of George W. Bush. The participants were then to sing along to the familiar tunes, but the “lyrics” were word-for-word Executive Orders of the Bush Administration. From topics as diverse as terrorism to Trout preservation, the participants tried to articulate the bureaucratic machinations of power in familiar melodies, to absolutely comical, pointed results. The members of the Finishing School Collective were dressed as referees and happily judged the efforts by the participating gallery-goers.

Art is charged to engage the public, the world is begging for meaningful political art that does not pander, preach or submit to illustrate the whims of a manipulative force. Art that is not fun is inevitably going to be ignored. Finishing School has solved so many problems embedded in contemporary art with one great night out on the town. It was absolutely shocking that MOCA would have such an event, vitality and current-ness being the last thing on the aging pink whale’s mind. ON a night with the political debates and a Dodger playoff game, a huge crowd turned out to enjoy art that involved, critiqued, satirized and hit home. It seemed so simple, but it took 22 years of boring MOCA shows to arrive at the point where the light bulb finally went off over someone’s head that nobody was buying the bullshit printed on the stupid wall labels rationalizing the egomania and insider status of assholes like Kippenberger as worthy of examination by the art audience.

-Mat Gleason

Next performance will be:

November 6  7:00-1o:00

Little Pharma Drug Run

(drug) cocktail party

Starting at MOCA, participants will first meet for a costume-making workshop and other activities. Dressed as their favorite pharmaceuticals, they will then embark on a group tour of the late-night drugstores of downtown Los Angeles. The event will culminate at Fringe Exhibitions in Chinatown, which will be hosting an incarnation of Finishing School’s Little Pharma, an interdisciplinary project investigating alternative medicines and lifestyles as viable antidotes to some of the drug industry’s pathologies. Little Pharma is on view at Fringe Exhibitions from October 11 - November 8.

-Susie